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THE JEWISH WEEK.
NOVEMBER 1, 2002
THE BElT
DIN L'INYENEI AGUNOT
Rabbi Emanuel
Rackman, presiding
Rabbi Eugene Cohen Rabbi Asher Murciano Rabbi
Haim Toledano
Agunot wishing to
submit their case for adjudication should call AGUNAH INT'L Inc. tel,
212-249-4523
Susan Aranoff Estelle Freilich Elona Lazaroff
Honey Rackman
The
services of the beit din are free of charge.
The following case histories,
edited to preserve confidentiality, describe the plight of women whose
marriages were annulled by Rabbi Rackman's
beit din.
The Rackman
beit din's
approach to freeing women like
those described below is firmly rooted in Halachic precedents
set
by the Geonim, Maimonides, the Or
Zarua, the Rashba, Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein,
Rabbi Moshe Rozen, Rabbi Abraham Aharon Yudlevitch and many other Halachic
decisors.
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CASE #101 DRUG
ABUSER ABANDONS WIFE AND CHILDREN
CR's
husband abandoned her and their three small children ten years ago.
He refuses to give her a get (Jewish divorce) or to reveal his
whereabouts. CR, an Orthodox woman from the Midwest had appealed to
her rabbi for help. She told him that her husband is a drug abuser
and had she known about his drug abuse before they had married, she
never would have married him. His drug abuse existed at the time of
their marriage but none of his friends or relatives would come
forward to testify about his condition. Her rabbi, whose beit din is
recognized by the Orthodox establishment told her, "You have to stay
like this for the rest of your life and pray to G-d that either he
dies soon or find someone else [to marry]”
CASE #103 ABUSIVE
HUSBAND ABANDONS WIFE, COMMITS BIGAMY
Six
months after MZ married RZ and had become pregnant with their child,
RZ told her he's in love with another woman, but refused to give her
a get. After months of psychologically abusing her, RZ returned to
his Israeli mistress, married her in Cyprus and had two children
with her. He and his new family have been living unfettered in
Israel for the past twenty years. In stark contrast, MZ had to raise
her child herself and was doomed to a life of loneliness and
despair. |
See our website
www.agunahinternational.com
for Halachic sources and remedies available to free these women.
Orthodox
Jewish women marry with the expectation and on the condition that their
husbands will treat them with decency and respect. When after marriage men
are guilty of physical and psychological abuse, sexual molestation,
adultery, abandonment or criminality, women can rightly claim that they
did not knowingly consent to a marriage that would subject them to such
brutality with no escape. There is substantial research documenting the
fact that abusive husbands have personality defects traceable to events in
earlier formative years, for example witnessing abuse in their childhood
homes. Thus the abusive husband's defects pre-existed the marriage though
the defects were concealed at that time. The marriage is, therefore, a
case of
kiddushei ta'ut,
a marriage
that is void ab initio because had the wife known of her husband's
defects she never would have consented to marry him. Further, it is
self-evident (an umdenah d'muchach) that Orthodox Jewish women
would not knowingly agree to entrapment in marriages to men guilty of the
deviant behavior described above. Indeed, the community as a whole regards
this behavior as being in total discord with any reasonable concept of
marriage. Orthodox Jewish women and children are endangered and Jewish
marriage is degraded when
batei din
fail to release
women from such insufferable marriages.
This message is sponsored by
AGUNAH INTERNATIONAL INC.
498 East 18th Street. Brooklyn, NY 11226
Hotline: 212-249-4523
Agunah
International Inc. is a tax
exempt, non-profit 501-(c) (3) organization
Your tax-deductible contributions are needed
They enable us to pursue our goals of helping women rebuild their lives
and promoting support for Halachic solutions to the agunah problem.
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